


a world that i built on my own

by WishingTree



Series: Cabin Shenanigans [3]
Category: Lumberjanes
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 19:26:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5387495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WishingTree/pseuds/WishingTree
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jo found a place among these girls, and she’s glad she chose to come to this camp.</p>
            </blockquote>





	a world that i built on my own

**Author's Note:**

> And the next one!  
> This one has turtles in it for a bit, and I don't know very much about turtles but I googled it and some of them do live in forests.
> 
> Title from "Melody" by Kate Earl;

“Do you think the stars get lonely?”

Jo furrowed her brow and craned her neck to look over at Molly questioningly. It was too dark to be sure, but it looked like the blonde blushed when she noticed the attention on her.

“Oh, well, because Jen’s always telling us those stories right? About all the different constellations and whatever,” Molly hastened to explain herself. “And I was talking to Ripley before, and – ”

Jo huffed out a breath. “Hey Molly, don’t worry.” She turned back and settled more comfortably with her hands cushioned behind her head. The three of them, Jo, Molly, and April, were lying on some towels in a vague semicircle beside their cabin stairs. “I mean, scientifically speaking? Somebody would have to go and prove whether or not stars could even be sentient, and then if they could actually form emotions specifically similar to what humans have dubbed as loneliness, and then there would have to be some way to objectively compare – ”

Her sentence was cut off abruptly as April elbowed her sharply in the ribs to tell her she was rambling without even turning her head.

Jo blinked again slowly and returned her gaze to the sky. “Oh, I mean, I think – I think that sometimes they do. But – but, it wouldn’t last forever, you know? Look at all the stars up there. Even if it’s just statistically speaking, they’ll find some friends to hang with.”

April smiled. “Lonely for a while isn’t such a bad thing. And the stars wouldn’t ever be alone for long, because their friends would always show up eventually, even if they couldn’t always see them the whole time.”

There was quiet for a while, each girl in their own mind, when Molly spoke up again. “When do you think Mal and Rip and Jen’ll be back?”

“They’ll be back soon Molly, don’t worry. They’ll always be back.”

“Yeah, and they’ll probably bring some snacks or something with them, and next week it’ll be someone else’s turn to do the supply run into town. Let the other cabin’s get delayed until dawn.”

Jo rolled onto her side, understanding what Molly wasn’t saying. “It’s okay to be lonely, sometimes. But you know that you aren’t alone, right Molly?”

April held her fist out for a supportive fist bump, and Molly reached up over her head and back to bump it with hers, looking at her upside down and smiling shyly.

They contented themselves with watching the night sky, occasionally pointing out the specific constellations they spotted. Eventually they began to doze off, time passing them by until they noticed the arrival of the others.

Jen rolled her eyes as she caught sight of them lying outside. “You do know that you could be sleeping in your bunks, right?”

Molly groaned as she sat up, rolling her shoulders to get rid of the stiffness. “S’cool. We watched the stars for a bit. It was fun.” Mal moved to her side and gently gripped her elbow, helping her up.

Jo blinked up at Jen sleepily, “We were waiting for you guys to get back.” She rubbed at her eyes for a moment before pushing herself to her feet, accepting a hug from Ripley as she caught her balance.

April yawned widely, stretching her arms above her head. “Okay, bed time everybody, let’s go,” Jen knelt down to pull April up and guide her towards the cabin door.

Jo started moving first with Ripley’s arms still wrapped around her waist, both of them stumbling over each other’s feet as they got to the cabin steps. When Jo pushed the door open and moved to usher her through, Ripley instead rested her head against Jo’s side and burrowed in, refusing to let go. Shrugging in acceptance, Jo hooked her arm around Ripley’s shoulders, standing back against the door to prop it open for the others. Her friends gave her sleepy smiles in thanks as they entered the cabin, and Jo smiled back, feeling the happiness resting comfortably in her chest.

 

“Hey, Jen!” Jo called after the counselor, eager to present her idea. She jogged the last few steps to catch up with her, concentrating on not dropping anything.

“What’s up?” Jen turned her attention to Jo, willfully ignoring Ripley who was zealously digging into a box of art supplies behind her. April was standing next to Ripley, although it was unclear whether she was coaxing her out or egging her on.

“I was wondering if we could put up some glow-in-the-dark stars in the cabin? I’ve got enough for the ceiling and the walls,” Jo held up her arms to show her.

“Where’d you even get these?” Jen looked over the pile held in Jo’s arms, instinctively taking some of the more precariously balanced ones.

“I asked Min to grab a bunch for me when it was Zodiac’s turn to do the supply run. So can we do it?”

“Of course!” Jen clapped her hands in excitement, plastic crinkling. “Oh, this is a wonderful idea! We can pick all the best constellations, and pattern them to mirror the sky, of course…”

April pulled Ripley over, whose face was now somehow smeared blue to match her hair. “Alright what are we getting excited about?” she asked as they watched Jen and Jo chatter away excitedly.

“Jen’s gonna put stars inside our cabin!” Ripley jumped in place and beamed.

Mal and Molly trailed over from the other direction with their arms linked in time to hear the statement. “That sounds awesome!” Molly said, leaning to the side to avoid Ripley’s flailing arms. “Hey, what happened to your face?” she asked as April swiped her finger across Ripley’s cheek, pulling it back to examine it.

Ripley only pointed at the box she had been digging through, offering no answer but laughing when Bubbles jumped over into her arms to sniff at her chin.

Mal bent down with her hands on her knees to get a better look at whatever was on Ripley’s face. “How’d you even get it the same color?”

“Yeah, I thought April used Kool-Aid on your hair? I don’t think Kool-Aid sticks to skin like that.” Molly scratched her head.

Ripley just shrugged, and they were interrupted by Jen nudging them to get them back on track. “I’ll leave these in the cabin, we can put them up tonight.” Jen accepted the rest of the plastic stars into her arms from Jo, stepping back and nodding her head in the direction of where the rest of the camp was gathering. “Woolpit’s heading down now, you can partner with them for the scavenger hunt. I’ll meet you at the volleyball court.”

“Uhh,” Jo scratched the back of her neck, “Maybe we should wait a little and get paired up with a different cabin?”

Jen paused, then turned back to look at Jo and April standing with matching sheepish grins on their faces. “What did you do?”

“Well, you see,” April began with exaggerated cheerfulness, “they’re still a little peeved from that one time we mistook them for gremlins and attacked them with parts of a freshly painted fence?” she explained as Jo held her hands up and shrugged ruefully.

“They were camouflaged really well!” Ripley chimed in, not looking at all repentant.

“I – we were not there when that happened,” Mal leaned back and pointed between her and Molly, “We’re totally innocent.”

“We apologized!” exclaimed April, “Now we’re just trying to avoid whatever they’re planning as payback for as long as possible.”

Jen huffed and rolled her eyes, “Okay, you can come down to the cabin with me, but then we’re going straight back. And you’ll have to partner with whoever’s there, even if it’s Woolpit. How do you even get into these situations?”

“It was an off day for us,” April commented as they all followed Jen towards Roanoke.

 

“Hey guys, check it out. I found a turtle under here,” Jo crouched down to peer at the small turtle half hidden from view by the tree trunk.

“I LIKE TURTLES,” Ripley scampered over and quickly ducked down next to her, landing on her hands and knees so she could get closer.

Folding her arms over her own bent knees, Jo watched carefully to make sure it wouldn’t do anything dangerous. Satisfied, she held out her own hand to gently pet the turtle’s shell, smiling as it peered its beady little eyes at her.

Molly was making cooing noises at the little turtle next to her, Mal trying to look over her shoulder. April waved away some of the looser underbrush, “Look, there are little turtle friends!” They all clustered together in delight.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jo spotted Rosie a couple feet away, watching them with her brow slightly furrowed. Glancing between the camp director and her friends, Jo pushed herself to her feet and stepped over. Rosie nodded in greeting and kept watching the girls playing with the turtles.

“It’s been a while since the last time creatures started appearing like that,” she mused, pursing her lips.

Confused, Jo looked up, unable to see her eyes through her glasses. “Is that – what does that mean?” Jo said hesitantly, not liking the sound of it.

“It always starts with something small. Like a bunch of turtles.” Rosie continued, pushing away from the tree and uncrossing her arms. She began to move back towards the camp as Jen appeared in the distance, coming towards them.

“That wasn’t much of a clarification.” Pressing forward, Jo tried to make sense of it while uncertainly twisting her fingers. “Like, that can’t be good, can it? Does that mean something dangerous is coming?”

Rosie waved off her concerns. “It’s the forest, sometimes it attracts foreign things. We’ll just have to be ready for when it’s more threatening than those turtles.” She walked off with her hands in her pockets, whistling a tune and leaving Jo to look after her in confusion. Troubled, Jo tugged at her sleeves and bit her lip.

Seeing her unease, the others approached her and hovered around, trying to reassure her in their own ways.

April’s fingers softly grasped her elbow. “You doing okay?”

Jo looked back and nodded, “Hm? Yeah, I’m fine.”

“What was Rosie saying?” Molly asked, leaning forward on her toes.

“I’m not sure,” Jo shrugged, deliberating before deciding to brush it off.

Ripley approached her very slowly, and handed her a turtle.

 

“With all the water this lake gets it’d be pretty cool if we could use some of it, rig up a filtration system or something.” Jo eyed the lake critically, observing the calm surface of the water.

Mal raised her eyebrows and tilted her head in consideration. “That’d actually be really good, in case anything ever happened to the water tanks.”

“I know where Rosie keeps the spare parts. We could make a mini-model, test it on the shore.” Jo tapped her fingers on the edge of the dock, turning the idea over in her head. “You know what, I bet it wouldn’t be too difficult to pull it off.”

“You think so?”

“Couple of test runs and we’ll be golden.”

Jo nodded in satisfaction and leaned back on her hands, making sure her bag was set on the dock next to her properly. She stretched out her legs, her pants rolled up so she could hang her feet into the water. Mal mirrored her position and lifted her face to the sky, absently swishing her feet around in the water.

“I like it here. There doesn’t even seem to be any kind of malevolent creatures in here, supernatural or otherwise! Much better than the murder river.”

Jo laughed, before starting in surprise as April popped up behind them out of nowhere and threw her arms around their shoulders. “No one’s been attacked by a lake monster yet then? How dull,” she grinned at Mal to show she was joking. “So you guys are serious about your science experiment?”

They all felt the dock shaking before the sound of running footsteps on the dock caught their attention, shocks reverberating through the wooden planks.

At the other end of the dock, Molly was sprinting towards them with a wild grin on her face, Ripley not far behind. The sound of their laughter reached them first, and they had front row seats to seeing Molly’s eyes widen and her face turn to one of dismay, then slight panic when she realized she was going too fast to stop before hitting the edge of the dock.

Jo saw her try to dig in her heels and pinwheel her arms, yelling as she shot right past them. Her momentum propelled her forward, and she teetered on the edge of the dock for half a second before awkwardly pushing off with one foot so she wouldn’t get knocked against the edge on the way down.

She fell in with a mighty splash, effectively spraying the 3 still sitting on the edge in shock. Almost immediately, her head broke the surface again, strands of blond hair sticking to her face. Before anyone had time to be worried, she started laughing, spinning herself around in the water.

Jo watched as Molly fished a shell-shocked Bubbles out with one hand and swam back to the dock, gently depositing him on solid land and giggling at the bedraggled raccoon.

Molly folded her arms up on the dock and rested her chin on them, looking up at Ripley who had managed to pull to a stop before getting launched into the lake as well. Molly smiled and blew out a breath, kicking her legs out behind her. “Hey Ripley, I guess this means you win.”

Ripley held her arms up in victory, “Yes!” Then she grinned mischievously, letting Jo know that she should probably be bracing herself as Ripley took a few steps back, crouching down like a runner at the beginning of a race. She took off, yelling, “I’M A CANNONBAAAAAAAAAALLL,” the shout getting cut off abruptly as she sailed right over Molly’s head and hit the water.

The remaining 3 girls, now thoroughly drenched, blinked through the hair hanging in front of their faces. April let out a whoop and dove into the lake after Ripley, getting into a splash fight almost immediately. Bubbles looked at them for a moment before slowly crawling over to Jo’s bag and hiding behind it.

Peace and quiet sufficiently destroyed, Jo and Mal jumped to their feet and joined their friends.

Mal moved to the edge next to where Molly was still propping her arms on the edge and sat down, keeping one arm wrapped around the wooden post while she smiled at her.

Jo slipped into the lake and dunked her head under, water running through her hair. Popping out again, she let herself float on her back, looking up at the clear blue sky. She pulled her arms in lazy strokes through the water, and she smiled happily.


End file.
